juliensimon/gcvs-variable-stars

General Catalogue of Variable Stars (GCVS)

Part of the Astronomy Datasets collection on Hugging Face.

The General Catalogue of Variable Stars (GCVS) is the canonical reference catalog of variable stars, maintained since 1948 by the Sternberg Astronomical Institute at Moscow State University. Currently 60,894 variable stars with 544 variability types.

Dataset description

Variable stars are stars whose brightness changes over time, either due to intrinsic physical processes (pulsation, eruption, rotation) or extrinsic geometry (eclipsing binaries). The GCVS is the internationally recognized authority for variable star designations and classifications. It has been compiled and updated for over 75 years, serving as the foundation for stellar variability research.

Each entry includes the GCVS designation, coordinates, variability type, magnitude range, period, epoch of maximum, and spectral type where known.

The catalog spans an extraordinary range of stellar physics. Mira variables (type M) are asymptotic giant branch stars with periods of hundreds of days and visual amplitudes exceeding 2.5 magnitudes, driven by radial pulsations in their extended hydrogen envelopes. Semi-regular variables (SR) occupy a similar evolutionary stage but pulsate with smaller amplitudes and less predictable cycles. Eclipsing binaries (EA, EB, EW) are not intrinsically variable at all -- their brightness changes arise purely from orbital geometry as one star transits the disk of its companion. At the other extreme, eruptive variables like UV Ceti flare stars and FU Orionis objects undergo sudden, dramatic outbursts linked to magnetic reconnection events or disk accretion instabilities.

Among the most scientifically important classes are the pulsating variables used as standard candles: classical Cepheids (DCEP), whose period-luminosity relation underpins the extragalactic distance ladder, and RR Lyrae stars (RR), horizontal-branch pulsators that trace the old stellar populations of the Galactic halo and globular clusters. The GCVS classification scheme, refined over decades, remains the basis for variable star taxonomy worldwide, and GCVS designations are the official IAU-recognized names for variable stars not already named in the Bayer or Flamsteed systems.

Because the GCVS draws on over a century of photometric monitoring, it captures variability on timescales inaccessible to modern surveys that have operated for only a few years. Many entries include epochs of maximum light stretching back to the early twentieth century, enabling studies of period changes, evolutionary effects, and long-term amplitude modulation that would be impossible from any single contemporary survey alone.

Schema

Column	Type	Description
gcvs_name	string	GCVS designation (e.g. "R And", "delta Cep")
ra_deg	float64	Right ascension J2000 (degrees)
dec_deg	float64	Declination J2000 (degrees)
variable_type	string	Variability type (e.g. M, SR, EA, DCEP, RR)
magnitude_max	float64	Maximum brightness (mag, lower = brighter)
magnitude_min_flag	string	Flag on minimum magnitude (e.g. "(" for amplitude)
magnitude_min	float64	Minimum brightness (mag)
period_days	float64	Period in days
epoch_jd	float64	Epoch of maximum/minimum (Julian Date)
spectral_type	string	Spectral type

Quick stats

• 60,894 variable stars
• 544 variability types
• 40,096 with known period
• 15,116 with spectral type
• Top types: M (7,920), RRAB (7,590), EA (4,113), EW (3,616), LB (2,800)

Usage

from datasets import load_dataset

ds = load_dataset("juliensimon/gcvs-variable-stars", split="train")
df = ds.to_pandas()

# Cepheid variables (standard candles for distance measurement)
cepheids = df[df["variable_type"].str.startswith("DCEP", na=False)]
print(f"{len(cepheids):,} classical Cepheids")

# Eclipsing binaries
eclipsing = df[df["variable_type"].str.startswith("E", na=False)]
print(f"{len(eclipsing):,} eclipsing binaries")

# Period-luminosity distribution
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
valid = df.dropna(subset=["period_days", "magnitude_max"])
valid = valid[valid["period_days"] > 0]
plt.scatter(valid["period_days"], valid["magnitude_max"], s=0.5, alpha=0.3)
plt.xscale("log")
plt.gca().invert_yaxis()
plt.xlabel("Period (days)")
plt.ylabel("Magnitude (max brightness)")
plt.title("GCVS Period vs Magnitude")

Data source

General Catalogue of Variable Stars (Samus' N.N., Kazarovets E.V., Durlevich O.V., Kireeva N.N., Pastukhova E.N., 2017, Astronomy Reports, 61, 80), accessed via VizieR, CDS Strasbourg.

Update schedule

Quarterly (1st of the month at 08:00 UTC) via GitHub Actions.

Related datasets

• pulsar-catalog -- ATNF Pulsar Catalogue
• messier-catalog -- Messier deep-sky objects
• ngc-ic-catalog -- NGC/IC deep-sky catalog

Pipeline

Source code: juliensimon/space-datasets

Support

If you find this dataset useful, please give it a ❤️ on the dataset page and share feedback in the Community tab! Also consider giving a ⭐️ to the space-datasets repo.

Citation

@dataset{gcvs_variable_stars,
  author = {Simon, Julien},
  title = {General Catalogue of Variable Stars (GCVS)},
  year = {2026},
  publisher = {Hugging Face},
  url = {https://huggingface.co/datasets/juliensimon/gcvs-variable-stars},
  note = {Based on GCVS (Samus' et al. 2017) via VizieR CDS Strasbourg}
}

License

CC-BY-4.0